No. 8 Wild Card – XR Image

I recently upgraded by iPhone to an iPhone XR because I read some good reviews on the camera’s lens and image quality.  I had to try it out.  I went to the local Lowe’s Yard and Garden display of flowers to capture some images.  This is the result, an image of a Lily with a tweak in Skylum and a border in Photoshop.  I purposely did very little post processing of the image to demonstrate the strength of the raw image but I would have liked to fix the black hole in the lower right.  The image data details ISO 40, f1.8, a 4.25 mm lens and a 4.2 MB image.  (15 years ago, 4 MB digital images would have been viewed as professional grade.)

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47. My Back Yard

A view from My Back Yard looking Northeast as the sun was setting.  I particularly liked the reflections in the pond and the sun’s rays striking the house.   The image was processed in Lightroom with a softening filter to give it somewhat of a dreamy or surreal look.   At the time, I just happen to look out the sliders to see this beautiful scene unfolding and quickly grabbed a camera to capture the composition that was set out before me.

19. Geometric Shapes

The three unusal windows with different geometric symbols painted on the glass are part of Solomon’s Castle in Ona, Florida.  This is a very eclectic castle constructed from cast off materials of every kind and which were used not only to build the castle but to create the art located inside and on the grounds.  The castle is full of geometric shapes, none of which are you allowed to photograph.  The reason for the crinkly appearance of the surface is that the siding is newsprint metal type sheets which were used by the local newspaper at the time Howard Solomon was building his castle.  He sand blasted the sheets and sanded them smooth to give them a shiny surface but they are a thin metal which gives the appearance that the castle is wrapped in Aluminum foil.  A very interesting place to visit!

 

23. Balance

Balance in nature is often achieved when animals can exist in a safe place, have food to eat and can take a nap in the warm sunshine.  Here two Elephant Seal pups have achieved balance without a care.  The two pups balance each other by taking their naps back to back, head to fin on the warm sands of a California beach.  They are protected in this location and their parents and other large seals are nearby if anything or anyone would wish to disturb their rest!

25. SOOC (Straight Out of the Camera)

This is one of those images where your answers would be interesting, if asked to guess what is it? This is a spur of the moment creation where you are not quite sure how it’s going to turn out but you have one shot.  I used existing lighting, scouted my position and choose a section of the instrument that was interesting to me.  It is in fact the insides of a Steinway Player Piano that can be played my a pianist using the keys or by artificial intelligence built into the piano.  I think the image demonstrates the precision, the detail and the craftsmanship of this instrument.  The image is Straight Out of the Camera with no post processing except for the border.

20. Wild Card – Mirror Image

This image was taken in an Irish Pub just after Christmas, thus the greenery around the mirror.  We were seated at a table just to the right of the mirror and I looked up and saw this great tapestry of whiskey bottles on the shelves behind the bar reflected in the mirror.  The image was captured on my iPhone since I had not anticipated taking any pictures.  I thought the reflection was a snapshot view of the ambience, character and the symmetry of the pub.   A footnote the corn beef and cabbage was exceptional!

43. Contrast (Composition)

This is an image of the country’s oldest operating vertical lift bridge, the Hawthorne Bridge, located in Portland, Oregon crossing over the Willamette River.  A linear park along the river with a walking and biking path passes under the bridge.  We spent four days in Portland where it rained every day and during brief periods of sunshine the temperature may have reached a high of 63 degrees.  But it still had a charm and liveliness that made it a very interesting place to visit.  I choose to post process the image in monochrome to enhance the grayness of the day and blackness of the bridge.  I also applied a “misty” filter in Luminar to soften the contrast and make it seem more mystical!